mid winter...in the country

I can't wait to be back beside the fire at the cottage this winter.  A good place to spend  a winter's evening.

Lots of projects to finish, time for walks with coats and boots, stew on the aga, a little bit of winter is a good thing.

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Build 101...modern gas fireplace

In today's Build 101 I am talking fireplaces.  I love our fireplace, in fact of all the many things we have built in our home this is my favourite.  You can read all about my decision to gas over wood fire here, in this post we are going to look at measurements and materials.

I would absolutely specify this glass sided fireplace again.  I love that you can see the flames from the side (see below).  Useful because our modular chaise runs along the fireplace wall, we wouldn't see much of the flames in a more traditional unit.

My husband did almost all the building for this unit himself (he is pretty amazing).  He built the floating shelf and the wooden fireplace hood or chimney breast.  We got the gas fireplace supplier to install the fireplace and we also employed a plasterer to do the cement finish render.

I wanted the floating shelf to run seamlessly across the room, I did not want the fireplace lip to come over this edge or interfere with the sight line in any way.  If this is what you want you must specify a recessed fire tray, the metal plate the stones fit on.  The suppliers can do it but it might not be on the show room floor.  Make sure you get what you want and don't take no for an answer.

Design decisions I would make again:

• Glass sided fireplace
• Recessed fire tray
• Shelf that runs the full width of the room.
• Height of shelf 50cm - slightly higher than the chaise on the sofa 41cm
• Depth of shelf was made as narrow as possible but had to be deep enough to hold the gas unit.  Our shelf is 57cm with the plaster.  
• The fireplace hood is 140cm wide by 141cm high.  I did not follow the size of the firebox which is actually far smaller, but a smaller hood would have looked silly.  Specify your surround to suit your space and aesthetic, not simply to clad the unit.

Decisions to consider:

• A gas fireplace needs an electric switch to turn on.  We tucked ours discreetly on the right hand side of the chimney, out of sight from the main living room.  
• The fireplace also needs to be plugged in.  Our plug point is hidden in the wall cavity below the shelf.   We have a sneaky seamless panel that looks like its part of the wall.
• Use this cavity space to hide other cables and power points.
• Don't forget to consider the thickness of the finished surface when you are designing.  You could be using plaster, wood or a stone product and they are all different.  
• The cement finish is porous and will mark  occasionally with time and use.  We are happy with that, if this isn't for you make sure you seal the cement, or choose another finish.
• We were warned that the cement might crack with the heat from the fire, it hasn't happened to us.
• Use samples to test the cement finish colour.  We found a dramatic difference between sealed and unsealder, and also between the actual product and the colour charts.  
• Consider the weight the shelf will take when finished (see below)

Getting the cement render done was problematic.  Cement render products pay attention now because you need to up your game.  The product we really liked is based in Queensland, had no suppliers in NSW nor any way we could see their product.  They don't sell samples and only sell to professional plasterers.  No surprises that we didn't use this product.
Contacting the companies who specialise in cement finishes brought no joy either.  Most never got back to us but we did get one quote for $6,000.  For a single shelf which required a bag of product costing around $100 and a day of labour tops.  Madness.

In the end Mr B had to drive a long way to buy a pack of cement from another supplier who couldn't recommend any trades.  We ended up hiring a local plasterer who was willing to give it a go, and didn't mind that the job was about 6 hours long split over three days.  At the end of the day I love the result and it cost us around $1,000 to apply.  So yes I would do this again, but with the proviso that it may need persistance to get it done.

The floating shelf is a very clever design of Mr B's.  See blog post on the construction here.  We wanted it to be strong enough for people to sit on, or for a child to stand on.  Just in case either of these things should happen, not because that is how we envision it being used.  The shelf is cantilevered off battons below it that are pinned directly to the wall battons, very strong.  This means that the space below the shelf is not quite as deep as the shelf itself, but you don't notice.  The eye is totally tricked.

For more in the Build 101 series click here: lots of tips, tricks and information to make your build decisions just that little bit easier.

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Success! Fireplace before and after!

We are loving the gas fireplace from Real Flame.  I do miss the smell of wood smoke, and the sound of wood crackling and popping as it burns, but I surely do love flicking the switch on and off when ever I want to.  The cement shelf feature makes perfect sense of the end of the room, its hard to imagine it wasn't always like this.  Thanks to my amazing hubby for making this happen.

You got to love it when a design turns out like you wanted it to.  The new new couch arrives in a few weeks (the first one arrived with the bench on the wrong side) and I will take some photo's of the whole room when it does.

The shelf is finished with cement render and we love the finish, adding the cement was the one piece Mr B hired in help for, we were worried about getting a really good finish.  The rest, including the gorgeous timber detail above the fire, was designed and built by him.  Just love it, especially this chilly winter!!

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building the fireplace...finally its going in

This is getting very exciting!  Our fireplace is finally going in!  The design is blue taped to the wall and my fantastic husband is doing his best piece of timber work yet. Its going to have a low faux floating shelf in a cement finish, a gorgeous gas fireplace, and a still to be decided feature to cover the firebox.  Can you tell I am a little bit excited?

You can read about my dilemma over gas or wood burning here, at the end of the day we decided we would use a gas fireplace more.  I also rather fell in love with the Pure Vision from Real Flame with its glass sides and crisp black fire plates.

Mr B came up with a great solution for the floating shelf.  It had to be strong enough for somebody to sit on, and we didn't want to put a new beam into the walls. As you can see below this was a piece of Kreg jig magic.  He attached a solid piece of timber horizontally into the struts, then created a thick shelf by adding a two planks above and below the timber.  To make it extra strong another series of uprights has been added a few inches in front of the wall (bottom left).  The shelf appears to float but actually sits on this bottom structure. 

We have left the power points where they are, but will make a pull out panel to go in front of them.  Keeping the access, not paying for new points, and hiding the cables all in one.  Fab idea by Mr B!

The framework has been covered with blue board (see above), ready for its cement finish, and the base will be closed with plaster board like any ordinary wall.   It's looking great and has totally changed the feel of the room already.  I have never felt that this space worked well and the shelf makes total sense of it all.  Can't believe it took us so long to come up with this plan it, it looks like it should always have been this way.

Will we be toasting marshmallows over it soon?  Watch this space and I will let you know.

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gas fireplace plans for the living room

So very exciting news.  We are putting in a fireplace finally.  We had always planned one for the living room wall, but when the time came to put it in during the build we were fresh out of both ideas and energy.  But when I wrote this post about gas fireplaces we fell love with the Pure Vision from Real Flame.  Pages and pages of sketches later and we have decided to put one in ourselves.   I blue taped the final design right onto the wall so we could test drive it and its amazing how it resolves the space.  

I have never been very happy with the way this room feels, it always feels a little pushed up against the wall, and it has been amazing how just the blue tape has corrected the balance of the room.  I can't wait to see the effect of the three dimensional structure!!
I also can't wait to have a shelf for flowers, vignettes, paintings, so exciting.

So this is what we are planning (see above), a long low shelf running the full width of the back wall.  The fireplace is off centre so we can accommodate a gorgeous modular sofa (see it here) at the left.  The square is a chimney breast feature, not quite sure how that is going to be finished yet.  And a really cool feature of the Pure Vision is that the sides are glass so when we are sitting on the sofa we will be able to see right into the fire.  Can't wait!!!

To save costs we (by we I mean he) will be doing the framing out.  Watch this space and see how we get it done.  I can't wait to see it myself!

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gas fireplace vs wood fireplace

There is nothing better than sitting by the fire on a cold wintery day or night.
Now I am a fan of the wood fire, I don't particularly like anything faux, but I recently came across the Pure Vision from Real Flame and it got me thinking about a more modern shaped range.  I am thinking that one of these gas fireplaces finished something like the images below could be the answer for my living room.  

Reasons to put in a gas fireplace:

• Instant gratification, turns on with the flick of a switch
• No wood, no mess
• Cheaper to install 
• You don't need a fire surround and can install over a wooden floor
• Not allowed to have wood fires in some suburbs

Why I still love a wood fire:

• That gorgeous smell of wood fire
• The crackle of wood burning

Style notes:
Both fireplaces are: low to the ground, have a strong textural feature, and the top of the fireplace is low too.  The barnwood fireplace, by Giorgio Possenti, at top is my favourite, I just love how the wood has been set in a modern pattern.
I also like the glass panels at the edges of fire in the second image, very similar to the Pure Vision from Real Flame.  The finish is polished black concrete but would be gorgeous in metal too.

I also like these double fronted fireplaces on the side of the chimney wall, they would work with the Double Vision from Real Flame. 

Above: amazing loft (photographer unknown)  
Below: plywood fireplace by Paul de Ruiter Architects, photographed by Tim van de Velde,

This may just be the year of the gas fireplace for our home.  This post was sponsored by Real Flame but all comments and opinions are, as usual, my own.

Double Vision & Pure Vision both from Real Flame, barn wood panel detail 

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Danish home magic.....& tree trunk table diy

Loving the soft gray fireplace wall, and the beads hanging off the horns.  I want something similar for my black bathroom wall.  I did want a skull but perhaps horns are less confronting.

The tree trunk coffee table on casters is genius!  I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a tree that has been blown over or is being taken down.   It will be a great excuse for The Voice of Reason to get out his chainsaw.

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Brrrrr......... I need a fireplace!

I am heading for my bed, the warmest place in our house by far!!   Do you have a fire to cosy up too?  Wish we could have been sitting beside a fire tonight, and no ethanol would not have done.

via Home Design Catalogues

What I really want is that amazing lamp!!!  Where can I find one?!

Rustic perfection via Homedit

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